“What bug bit him?” » This essential question still haunts the minds of those close to businessman Ch. Mb. Lèye, who seek to understand how this seasoned entrepreneur, accustomed to managing important private and public markets without a hitch, could have been fooled like a beginner. In the absence of rational answers, Ch. Mb. Lèye claims to have been the victim of a marabout who extorted from him the staggering sum of 583 million CFA francs. His story is relayed by L’Observateur.
This case, mixing organized gang fraud and money laundering, dates back to December 2023. At that time, the devastated businessman recounted his nightmarish misadventure to investigators from the Criminal Investigations Division (DIC). According to his testimony, it all began with a series of discussions with an acquaintance named B. Barry, to whom he had confided his professional and personal difficulties. B. Barry then recommended to him an alleged miracle worker, Mr. Baldé, residing in Malika Cité Sonatel, capable of solving his problems through mystical practices.
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Convinced, Ch. Mb. Lèye agrees to meet Mr. Baldé, presented as a marabout-traditional practitioner. During their first meeting in Pikine, the marabout asks for a modest sum of 5,000 FCFA and gives the entrepreneur holy water intended for mystical baths. According to Ch. Mb. Lèye, these baths would have had devastating effects on him, plunging him into a state of total submission. Losing all control over his actions, he begins to blindly respond to all the charlatan’s requests.
Under various fallacious pretexts, such as jinn requirementsthe marabout, helped by his accomplice B. Barry, pushes the victim to make payments, initially small sums, before increasing to millions and hundreds of millions of CFA francs. Business partners of the entrepreneur, such as SL and NF, declared having transferred 240 million and 130 million FCFA respectively to the accounts of the marabout and his acolytes, on the instructions of Ch. Mb. Lèye. Other witnesses, notably DD and ML, confirmed transfers of 27,250,000 FCFA and 16 million FCFA.
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Plunged into an infernal cycle, the businessman will go so far as to sell his two houses, his car and other valuable assets to satisfy the financial demands of the charlatan. In his complaint filed on November 13, 2023, he claims to have paid a total of 587 million FCFA and provides copies of transfer receipts Wave attesting to his words.
The investigation carried out by DIC agents resulted in the arrest of the marabout M. Baldé and his accomplices, B. Barry and C. Diao. Investigations revealed that Mr. Baldé, a repeat offender, operated under different identities, including Th. Diallo and A. Diallo. When questioned, he admitted the facts, but only admitted to having taken 18 million FCFA. The suspects were referred to the public prosecutor for criminal conspiracy, organized gang fraud, charlatanism, money laundering, and illegal possession of firearms.
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